Writer and journalist, fabulist and editor Sergei Vladimirovich Pilipenko was the founder of the first Ukrainian organization of writers "Plow". Until now, this name remains unknown to a wide range of readers. His name and work were banned due to the repressions of the 30s of the XX century.
Ukrainian writer and journalist Sergei Vladimirovich Pilipenko is little known today even in his homeland. Contemporaries admired him, his desire to revive the culture of Ukrainians and educate creative youth. However, after the repressions at the beginning of the 20th century, information about him and his works was withdrawn from public access.
Biography of Sergei Pilipenko
Sergey Vladimirovich Pilipenko was born into the family of a folk teacher in 1891. He studied first at the First Kiev Gymnasium, and then became a student at Kiev University. He chose the Faculty of History to study.
From his youth he was an active participant in the movement of socialist revolutionaries. Because of such revolutionary activities, Pilipenko was expelled from the university in 1912, and even expelled from Kiev without the right to enter any university city.
In 1914, Sergei Pilipenko became a soldier of the Russian army and went to the front as a private. He reached the rank of captain, received a large number of officer awards. He suffered three wounds and two contusions. He continued his revolutionary activity in the military environment.
After returning to Kiev in 1918, he worked in various publications: from the Ukrainian "Narodnaya Volya" to the Soviet newspapers "Izvestia", "Bolshevik", "Krestyanskaya Pravda". In the latter, the Union of Peasant Writers "Plow" was created, which Pilipenko led permanently. The members of the Union worked to raise the level of culture in the villages and discovered new talents.
Sergei Pilipenko was shot on March 3, 1934 after being expelled from the party for "distorting national policy and ideological instability." Later, the sentence was canceled, and Pilipenko himself was posthumously rehabilitated.
Creation
Sergei Pilipenko, who was also published under the pseudonyms Sergei Slepoy, Plugatar and others, rather early began to take an interest in the folklore and epics of the Slavs. He himself is also best known as a fabulist, although in his work there are stories, short stories, translations of songs from Georgian and Belarusian languages. There is even a war diary, written by him in the period 1916-1917, and having a clearly expressed anti-war orientation.
Pilipenko published about thirty books of stories and fables, wrote literary critical articles. The collection "Selected Works" published by the Smoloskip publishing house is recognized as the most complete collection of the author's creative works. It contains fables, articles, reviews, prose. Most of them reflect the author's personal views on the events of the Civil War and the First World War. For example, "Pigs on an oak tree", "Banner and a machine gun", "Demonstration", etc. Pilipenko's style was distinguished by sincere humor and laconicism, juiciness and wit of presentation.
In 1923, Pylypenko initiated the translation of the Ukrainian alphabet into the Latin alphabet.
Career
Pilipenko's whole life was filled with active work: he worked as an editor, wrote books, articles and reviews, helped young talents. For some time he headed the Shevchenko Research Institute in Kharkov.
Most of Pylypenko's works were published during his lifetime. But part of the legacy was lost or destroyed in connection with the charges brought forward. In November 1933, the writer was arrested, like many members of the then Ukrainian intelligentsia. Later, Pilipenko will be included in the list of "Executed Renaissance", each representative of which ended his life with a tragic death.
In 1957, it was decided to posthumously rehabilitate the writer.
A family
Pilipenko was married to Tatiana Kardinalovskaya. After her husband's arrest, she and her daughters were deported to the city of Kalinin. After exile, which lasted about ten years, the family managed to illegally return to Ukraine.
During the Great Patriotic War, Tatiana and her daughters were taken to Germany for forced labor. They remained there until 1945. After the end of the war, women had to wander for a long time until they finally settled in the United States.
Tatiana Kardinalovskaya worked as a teacher, translator, wrote memoirs. Their daughters now live in the United States. The elder Asya Gumetskaya has the title of professor at the University of Michigan.
The younger Mirtala Pilipenko-Kardinalovskaya writes poetry and paintings, and is engaged in sculpture. In 1996, a memorial museum appeared in Kharkov, which contains all kinds of documents, books, photographs, sculptures describing the life and work of Pilipenko. A significant part of the exhibits was donated to the museum by Myrtala Pilipenko-Kardinalovskaya. In 1998, a memorial plaque in memory of S. V. Pilipenko was opened there, the author of which was his youngest daughter.
The profile of the writer is depicted against a background of cracked earth. According to the sculptor, this symbolizes the fractured life of the writer.
Four lines from a poem by Myrtala dedicated to his father are engraved on the board:
The literary life of Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s was concentrated in Kharkov. It is simply impossible to imagine it without S. V. Pilipenko. Since the opening of the museum, the name of the writer returns to historical memory, and his works are studied not only at home, but also abroad. Now the museum regularly conducts "Pilipenkovsky days" and "Pilipenkovsky readings", the almanac "Pilipenkovskaya notebook" is published.
